I do like a bit of the Romantic poets, Keats being my favourite of those, Byron not far behind. Overall, I'd have to say John Donne was the person I read the most though. Really wanted to like William Blake, I read a fair amount of his stuff, but it never really clicked with me.

I do like a bit of the Romantic poets, Keats being my favourite of those, Byron not far behind. Overall, I'd have to say John Donne was the person I read the most though.

Good man!...Although I prefer Byron to Keats. Keats had the raw talent, the skill, but he didn't live long enough to develop that talent and become the mroe polished writer that Byron was. Which is a bloody tragedy, but anyway.I love Donne, the way his secular poems are full of sacred imagery and his religious poems coloured by the secular. Powerful visualist, too.I can also add my support to Sylvia Plath - and also Ted Hughes, 'The Thought-Fox' is a favourite of mine.Anything and everything by Oscar Wilde, I also love love LOVE Edgar Allan Poe ("And travellers now, within that valley / Through led-litten windows see / Vast forms, that move fantastically / To a discordant melody, / While, like a rapid ghastly river, / Through the pale door, / A hideous throng rush out forever / And laugh, but smile no more.")

Also got a soft spot for Lewis Carroll - partly as I do Alice in Wonderland workshops for kids through the summers and have memorised 'How doth the little crocodile', 'Jabberwocky' and now also The Lobster Quadrille!

Shelley, early Wordsworth (before he became Establishment) and Tennyson are worth a mention.

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"Were you checking me out or him? Because he worries about me getting harrassed in the workplace."

In the change of years, in the coil of things, In the clamour and rumour of life to be, We, drinking love at the furthest springs, Covered with love as a covering tree, We had grown as gods, as the gods above, Filled from the heart to the lips with love, Held fast in his hands, clothed warm with his wings, O love, my love, had you loved but me!

But I'm with a lot of other people here, Poe, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson. All the biggies.

There's always going to be a bit of a special place for Christina Rossetti too though, especially Goblin Market.

ORIGINAL: Funkyrae There's always going to be a bit of a special place for Christina Rossetti too though, especially Goblin Market.

Meh. I can take or leave that. Rossetti has some fascintating ideas that are explored in the poem - I just don't think she has the skill to handle them very well. And she's bogged down by the typical pedestrian rhyme scheme - although Byron & co managed to work fantastially in rhyme, so that's no excuse really!I have a soft spot for alliteration, myself - which is a very Anglo-Saxon/Old English style. Not that I sit around reading Beowulf in the original Anglo-Saxon runes or anything!

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"Were you checking me out or him? Because he worries about me getting harrassed in the workplace."

I'm keen on a selection of poem, used to like Keats but went off the poems a bit after studying them at A-level as analysed them too deeply. Recently bought a Philip Larkin anthology which has been a pleasant experience as had only read a couple of his previously.

One poetry anthology I do love is 'Poems to last a lifetime' put together by Daisy Goodwin. Beautifully presented mixture of poems with some great photos and comments

The BBC's poetry season has really kicked me into reading some poetry. Right now I'm reading a collection of T.S.Eliot that's part of the Faber & Faber 80th anniversary series. The other poets in the series, W.B.Yeats, S.Plath, T.Hughes, W.H.Auden and J.Betjeman I will most certainly pick up. I know I love Yeats' work, but the others I really know very little about. I can't wait! I'm least looking forward to Hughes and Plath. Is this unfounded? I think it's probably because I know least about them.

I am a huge poetry fan. I love most of the people that you've all mentioned, especially Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Sylvia Plath, Yeats: I would add Emily Dickinson, George Herbert and Shakespeare's poetry as well.

But I can't stand John Donne. He's been on my uni reading list this past year, and it annoys me that you can practically hear his arrogance in every line (especially his secular work). He shows off his own skill a bit too much for my liking, and has a habit of over-complicating all his ideas... whereas people like Dickinson have a fantastic quality of deceptive simplicity in their work. ("Parting is all we know of heaven/ And all we need of Hell", for example).

Has anyone else read any Simon Armitage on here? Because I think he's great too.

I forgot I made this thread I've been meaning to get some Armitage, no idea where to start though. What collection would you start with? Also Mafyou, definitely get some Sylvia Plath. Occasionally a bit repetitive but still one of the best poets I've read.

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I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation.

I received my copies of Yeats, Auden and Betjeman and I'm slightly disappointed that there is no Lullaby in the Auden edition. Still, they are very nice books and well worth owning. I'm very happy with how they all look alongside one another too.

I do like a bit of the Romantic poets, Keats being my favourite of those, Byron not far behind. Overall, I'd have to say John Donne was the person I read the most though. Really wanted to like William Blake, I read a fair amount of his stuff, but it never really clicked with me.

That's how I felt about Donne, I just couldn't get into him. At school I really liked Dylan Thomas and had a bit of a thing about Larkin (he was my uncle's university librarian, incidentally), at uni Rimbaud and Plath; now I'm rather fond of Shelley - he's my favourite of the Romantics.

I forgot I made this thread I've been meaning to get some Armitage, no idea where to start though. What collection would you start with? Also Mafyou, definitely get some Sylvia Plath. Occasionally a bit repetitive but still one of the best poets I've read.

With Armitage, there are some great collections to get to, but I recommend Book of Matches and Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Corduroy Kid.

Also, Ariel is the starting point for Plath newbies, but it can actually be cheaper to buy the Collected Poems edition...